Prosecutors looking to use Markeith Loyd's criminal record to secure death penalty

ORLANDO, Fla. — Prosecutors in Markeith Loyd’s murder trial are gearing up to use his past to try to have him executed.

Loyd attacked at least one of his guards when he was doing time for dealing drugs, court records show.

In 2010, Loyd was caught with homemade weapons when he was in federal prison. He pleaded guilty.

In court, the judge asked Loyd to explain what he’d done in his own words.

“I had possession of two shanks on me for my protection,” Loyd said.

The judge asked where Loyd possessed them. “In my hair,” he replied.

Loyd described the shanks as something similar to a pair of handmade ice picks.

"As a prosecutor, I'm going to want to show as many convictions involving violence as I can show. Why? If I can prove one beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt, I'm well on my way of asking for the death sentence,” said Bill Sheaffer, WFTV legal analyst.

Sheaffer reviewed Loyd’s long-term criminal records, no filed as evidence in his case.

One stumbling block, assuming Loyd’s convicted and facing the death penalty, will be the charge of attacking a prison guard, and the associated stigmas of a violence felony conviction, which was dropped as part of the shank plea deal.

"The only way the prosecution's going to get that conviction of this shank into evidence is to call the guard and have that guard testify 'He used that shank when he attacked me,’” said Sheaffer.

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